And You Thought Your Day Was Bad
by Firestar'sniece
Summary: Steve and Bucky are living together after Steve insists that they leave the Avengers. Steve wants them to go to college. But when a mysterious cosplayer crashes into their lives, Bucky's life is turned upside down, especially when Steve makes them play host. Even worse, he complicates things with the government and Hydra as everyone wants a piece of the new stranger, and of Bucky.


**Okay, so since this is fanfiction that means I don't own these characters!**

Chapter One: Is Life A Big Joke?

(Bucky Point of View)

"Bucky, I'm headed out," Steve called somewhere downstairs.

Clenching his teeth, Bucky gripped his metal arm harder against the saucepan where his scrambled eggs were. He and Steve had gotten in a fight the other day and now Bucky was mad. He refused to talk to Steve.

"You'll be alright, right?" Steve's voice floated from the garage.

Bucky ignored him. 'Still not talking to you,' he thought.

Though Bucky knew it was petty of him, he couldn't help it. Coming back to the US had been difficult on them both, and they both had taken a temporary vacation from the Avengers to take a much needed break. Steve had bought a good sized house out in the country, and they'd spent some time traveling. Still, though, it was no excuse for Steve to withhold some vital information from Bucky.

"I'm retiring," Steve had told him suddenly. Bucky had been too shocked to speak, his mouth open at the dinner table with food scooped in a fork about to go in. "Oh, and I signed us up for college."

Shaking his head to bring him out of the memory, Bucky flipped his eggs in annoyance. An early retirement from the Avengers was not what he had in mind, not when he had lives to save and life debts to repay. But no Steve insisted that he needed a break too.

Bucky heard a sigh downstairs and the door closing.

(Sometime later)

With his baseball cap on to hide his face as best as he could, Bucky headed down the dirt road that ran beside Steve's property to go for his morning walk. Passing the mailbox, he sighed and grabbed the mail... only to find college envelopes addressed to a Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes.

Growling, he walked back to the house to deposit the mail. Out of curiosity he grabbed the mail opener and opened one. "Dear Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes," he mockingly read the first envelope addressed to him. "We want to thank you for your service to this country. Also, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the University of - bah!" Bucky threw all the letters into the trashcan. "I don't need college! I already went to college!"

Stalking over to the door he grabbed his baseball cap off of the doorknob and headed out again. Swiftly placing it on his head with a grumble, Bucky locked the door behind him and stalked towards the dirt road again. It was so not his day.

He began jogging down the road, carefully looking right and left. Though the road was private and always empty, Bucky had a habit of looking out for danger. Call it a habit if you will. But there was always a part of them that felt like he was being stalked, and he could never shake the feeling. He was always afraid that something bad was going to happen.

His senses were sharp. He could see further than any normal human with a clarity rivaled by no one else. Only Steve was his rival there. He could run faster than any normal human. After Quicksilver died, Steve was his only rival. He could smell things with such delicacy, that he could tell the difference with ease between the different kinds of tomatoes and the difference between the eggs in the same carton, like a different chicken had laid each one. So could Steve. And his hearing was unparalleled, rivaled only by Steve. In fact, he could hear...

CRASH!

Yelping, Bucky turned around rapidly, his knife out of his sleeve in no time. His eyes squinted as he saw the cracked tree limbs, and the broken ones, a tangle of debris on the ground some 200 feet behind him.

It was a ways off the dirt road, and Bucky stalked forward carefully. Looking right and left discreetly to make sure that it wasn't a trap, Bucky stalked closer. What he saw was not what he was expecting.

"What on earth?" Bucky mumbled in curiosity and confusion, stumped as he looked at the limp mess lying in front of him.

A man with long white hair in a long white overcoat with gemstones that Bucky hoped wasn't genuine was unconscious. His face held no expression, and part of his hair was pulled back.

"Cosplayer?" Bucky murmured in confusion. Shrugging, he picked up the man and hoisted him over his shoulders, taking him home.

As he opened the door to his and his guardian's (Steve's, but he refused to call him that as he was mad at him) house, the man over his shoulder groaned. Being more careful and more gentle, Bucky shut the door behind him. He laid the man on their couch, then proceeded to pull the lever to lean the chair back. The man mumbled incoherently.

All Bucky could do for a while was stare at him. How the man got there on their property was a mystery. And he had no idea what to tell his **_guardian_** when he got home. "Hi, I picked up this complete stranger from the forest we live on?" Yeah, that wouldn't go well. And chances are that his **_guardian_** would freak out as he now had the habit nowadays of being overprotective. And he still wasn't too sure that he should trust the stranger anyways. For all he knew, the man was a part of Hydra.

"Hi, I was just trying to do a good deed today," Bucky practiced. He grimaced. "Yeah, that doesn't sound right."

Suddenly the man opened his eyes, and in an instant he was on his feet, yelling fiercely in a language that Bucky had never heard or could not understand. Bucky now had his knife back out, carefully watching the man. "Okay," He tried to hold up his left metal arm reassuringly, not a good idea in hind sight. "Please just calm down."

The man eyed him and with an angry look walked over and began yelling at him, pointing wildly around.

"Yeah, I don't understand you."

The shouting continued. "Stop!" Bucky yelled. The man gave him a fierce look. "Stop!" Bucky yelled even more, clenching his hands to his ears, the stress of the situation getting to him. He could tell a flash back was coming on.

With a snort, the man pointed at him, and the next thing Bucky knew, he was in a wall of ice. He tried to shout but was unable to. Trying to squirm around, he found that he was completely frozen. 'Not again!' Bucky thought, and the next thing he knew he was panicking.

For how long he tried to get out of there, he didn't know, but finally, he just stopped resisting. It reminded him strangely of cryofreeze. He always stopped fighting eventually. There was no point. He was frozen until someone wished to unthaw him for a mission.

Time seemed to pass, but suddenly, he felt the familiar sensation of the ice thawing around him. Eventually he could breathe again, and he started heaving gasps of air, almost like he was drowning.

A soft hand was pressed to his face, and a blurry image was in front of him. The man was holding him with his other arm, he could tell. "Bucky," the man softly said. Bucky immediately knew who it was. "Steve."

"Yeah," the man said, and the image became clearer. There were tears in Steve's eyes. "Are you all right?"

Bucky groaned. His body hurt everywhere. He looked dreamily and warily around the room. "That guy froze me."

Steve seemed to wince. "Yeah. I saw that. Why did you bring him home?"

"He just crashed in the trees," Bucky slurred his speech, tired and closing his eyes.

Steve's voice was now reluctant. "He just crashed in the trees?" There was a bit of disbelief there.

"Yeah."

"Huh."

At this point, Bucky was having a hard time staying awake and his eyes slowly closed. The last thing he felt was a blanket placed over him.

(Steve Point of View)

After Bucky was situated on the chair, leaned back with a blanket over him, Steve turned reluctantly around to face the unnatural blue eyes of the man who had somehow made Bucky a Popsicle, or Wintersicle as Tony would more than likely put it when he heard about this. Even the unnatural elvish ears made Steve wary.

Carefully moving around as to make no sudden movements, the man's sharp eyes watching him very carefully, Steve attempted to prove that he was not a threat. He didn't want to wind up like his best friend, especially since he was the one taking care of Bucky.

He moved over to the seat. "Water?" he offered, carefully getting the glass out and making a large display of getting it and holding the water out. Truth be told, after seeing the aftermath of Bucky, Steve didn't know if this was a good idea or not. He was pretty sure the man's powers were real after seeing Bucky frozen in a sheet of ice, but he had no idea how these powers worked.

The man eyed him suspiciously before warily accepting it. He took a sip, and when he had taken a sip, his eyes widened. He began coughing and moved to the counter to set the water down. "Yeah, tap water isn't the best," Steve agreed, watching as the man continued to hack it up.

The man turned to face him again, no longer coughing. It was at this point that Steve figured it was a good idea to start communicating. "Steve," he said, pointing to himself. Then he pointed to the man.

The Ice Man looked at him in confusion. "Steve," Rogers repeated the gesture, pointing at himself, and then pointing at the man with a questioning look.

Ice Man looked reluctantly at Bucky. "Steve," he vocalized with a strong accent, not entirely making the words out, pointing at Bucky. He looked at Steve for confirmation.

Steve shook his head. Walking carefully over, he pointed at his friend. "Bucky," he said. Pointing at himself, he said, "Steve." Then pointing at Bucky, "Man." He pointed at himself. "Man." He pointed at the male stranger. "Man," he emphasized. Pulling out his wallet showing his friend Natasha, he stated, "Woman." He hoped that the man would get it. After all, he had no idea if this being had a concept of gender, or if they even had genders, wherever he was from (though he assumed that they had to).

Ice Man nodded. "Man," he pointed to Bucky. "Man," pointing at Steve. "Man," he pointed at himself. "Woman," he pointed at the photograph of Natasha, and there was definite curiosity in his eyes.

Steve looked relieved and nodded. "Bucky," he tried again, pointing at his best friend. "Steve," he pointed at himself.

The Ice Man seemed to comprehend what was going on. But there was also a reluctance in him. "Ying Kong Shi," he finally introduced himself, toning his words.

"Ying Kong Shi," Steve tried the strange words on his mouth knowing that _**he**_ was now the one butchering whatever language it was that this man was speaking. "Ying Kong Shi," he tried again, and nodded in acceptance. Stepping forward, he tried, suddenly holding his hand out to offer a hand shake. "Nice to meet you and welcome- Ah!" Steve cried out as Ying Kong Shi now had him in an arm lock, responding at a speed he had not expected. The man looked aggressive all of a sudden. "Or not!" Steve gulped.

Steve could swear that Ying Kong Shi's bright blue eyes darkened a bit. The man began speaking aggressively to him in a language that he didn't understand and suddenly gripped Steve tighter. Steve yowled a bit, sounding like a cat. "I don't know!" he shouted. "I don't even understand you!"

The man snorted aggressively and released him, eyeing him with disdain. Now Steve knew how Bucky had ended up a popsicle, and Steve felt fortunate that he hadn't suffered the same fate. As they cautiously watched each other, Steve made his way to his cell phone near Bucky.

Ying Kong Shi's eyes narrowed when he saw Steve picking up his phone. "Just making a phone call..." They continued to eye each other warily, and Steve did his best to keep his eyes on Ice Man as he tried to pick out the number he wanted. Finally, the phone was dialing. After a moment, Sharon picked up. "Steve?"

"Hey, Sharon," Steve tried too keep an even tone.

Steve could swear that he could hear Sharon frown on the other end, even though it was impossible. There was a pause and then, "I though that you weren't talking to me again?"

Steve sighed. "I wouldn't if it wasn't an emergency. You see, Bucky's brought home a complete stranger..."

"Oh?" Sharon asked, definite interest in her voice.

"Yeah, and he's not exactly... stable. I can't tell if this guy has a mental illness or something. I'm a bit concerned for our safety here."

"Do you want me to send the FBI out?" Sharon offered.

"No," Steve requested. "I'm not even sure how they'd handle a case like **_this_**. In fact, I'd like to keep it quiet. But I was wanting to ask," Steve met Ying Kong Shi's eyes, which narrowed when he looked at him, anger and suspicion in his gaze. "Do you know of any psychotic cosplayers lost?"

"No," was Sharon's contemplation on the other end. "But I can look into it."

"Thank you," Steve whispered.

There was a brief pause on the other end. And then, "You sure you don't want me to send someone out? If he's making both you and Bucky nervous, he sounds like a handful."

"No, no, I'm pretty sure me and Bucky can handle it," Steve gulped. 'I think,' he thought quietly.

"And what am I looking for," was Sharon's inquiry.

"An elf looking guy dressed in white."

Sharon snorted in sarcasm. "That **_really_** narrows it down, Steve. There are **_a lot_** of elvish cosplayers."

"Well you can't miss his dreadfully white and jeweled outfit," Steve sarcastically retorted. "I know of no cosplayer that dresses like this."

"And there _**are**_ a lot of ridiculous cosplaying outfits out there." Sharon sighed. "I'll look into it, Steve, but I don't know if I can find anything with that information, let alone find anything discreetly."

"Thanks, Sharon," Steve sighed.

"No problem," was the woman's stressed voice on the other end. "Bye, Steve."

"Bye, Sharon." And Steve hung up, Ying Kong Shi looking at him suspiciously the whole time.

(Bucky Point of View)

With a groan, Bucky blinked and opened his eyes. He yelped as he saw bright inhuman looking eyes staring at him from beside the chair. Next thing he knew, he and his guest were standing defensively, warily watching one another.

There was a soft pad of feet, and as he heard Steve come down the stairs behind him, there was a sigh. "Bucky, stand down."

Ice Man narrowed his eyes. "He's acting like he's going to kill me, Steve."

Another sigh. "You're just aggravating the situation and making it worse."

" ** _I'm_** aggravating the situation?" Bucky scoffed in disbelief. Ice Man seemed to have a smirk on his face. "Hey, what are you smirking at?" Bucky snapped at him. But regardless, he straightened up as he didn't want Steve annoying him further.

"Bucky," Ice Man said in strange accent that he had never heard before.

As shocked as he was, Bucky was trained to have complete control over his expressions. Folding his arms, he stared at the man, in a bad mood again. The other man mimicked him. Steve stepped up to him and reached to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but Bucky shrugged him off. "I see you taught him names, Steve."

"Man makes good ice," the Ice Man said, making Bucky freeze in shock.

"And some grammar to, as well," Bucky eyed Steve as if he didn't quite know if it was a good idea.

"Mortal needs to learn his place."

Going red, Bucky was about ready to go Winter Soldier on him when Steve sighed and physically dragged Bucky into the next room. "The least you could do is be kind to him." Steve put both hands on Bucky's shoulders.

Bucky gasped. " _ **Me**_? He was the one being rude!"

Steve smiled. "And you're the one who brought him home. A kind deed indeed. I think the least you could do is play host for a bit. And tell you what, since you brought him home, he's now your responsibility to look after.

"No!" Bucky bristled.

Steve shook his head briefly. "Natural consequence."

"You're mean."

"And you're the one who said that we needed to be careful about others, including Hydra. Isn't letting a complete stranger in the home a no no that you insisted upon?" Steve raised both eyebrows in a challenge.

Bucky sighed. "I'm never going to live that down now, am I?"

"Nope!"

"Well then," Bucky grimaced. "But I'm not doing it alone!"

Steve seemed to chuckle at this. "Yes you are. You let him in, he's you're responsibility." With that, Bucky's face fell and Steve turned away, heading to the door, chuckling. With his hand on the doorknob, he turned back. "Oh, and I expect you to continue giving him language lessons. He seems to pick up pretty fast."

Steve headed out, leaving the door open. "Shall I do anything else, mother?" Bucky sarcastically commented into thin air.

(Six Hours later)

"Bucky?"

"Yes."

"Bucky?"

"Yes."

"Bucky?"

Bucky slammed his fist down as he saw the amused expression of the Ice man. "Yes! What! You know more words than that already!"

"It amuses me."

As his fist clenched, Bucky could see Ice Man's expression getting more amused. This was not the first time that the man had purposely annoyed him, and he seemed to get great amusement out of it.

Groaning, Bucky put his face in his hands at the dining room table that they were sitting at. Ice Man was watching him intently.

At that point, Steve walked into the room. Steve seemed to get along better with Ice Man, somehow, than he did. "What don't you tell him your name?" Steve prompted Ice Man.

"Ying Kong Shi," Ice man immediately responded.

Bucky raised his head in exasperation slightly. "Really? I've been asking for your name all along, and suddenly Steve comes along and you'll say it?"

Ying Kong Shi shrugged. "He's not annoying. You are."

Bucky glared at him in frustration. "Really? Then what were you doing a minute ago?"

"Calibrating your senses."

"Calibrating what?"

At Bucky's confused expression, Ying Kong Shi smirked. Steve, taking a cup of water and filling it gave it to Ying Kong Shi, an unusual expression on his face. "I think what he was saying is that he's testing you to see how you'll react if you do certain things." Ying Kong Shi's eyes briefly flickered to Steve.

"Great," Bucky groaned. "So he's manipulative."

Ying Kong Shi tilted his head. "And you're not?"

"Since when have I been?" Bucky angrily inquired, fists clenched.

"A minute ago," Ying Kong Shi clarified, then parroted him. "'We're heading to the city tomorrow, Bucky.' 'Steve, do I have to go?' 'Yes, we're heading to see you're therapist.' 'You know, there's this new café there. I know that it's serving waffles, which you love. It opens at 8am.' 'Bucky, that's when your appointment is.' 'Can we go there instead? You said you wanted to see me happy. Don't you want to spend time with me just like in the good old days before the war?' Ying Kong Shi smirked right afterwords.

Bucky clenched his fists, hating hearing the conversation coming from the man with the huge accent. "Manipulative," Ying Kong Shi concluded, with a soft emphasis and mocking tone.

The arm clicked as the plates slid into place. Steve quickly stepped forward. "Bucky, why don't you show Ying Kong Shi one of the spare bedrooms? That way he can get settled in?" There was a tension in Steve's voice that had never been there before.

But Bucky stared challenging at Ying Kong Shi who stared challenging back. "I don't know, Steve. He's a fast learner. I'm sure he could figure it out by himself."

Anger flashed in Ying Kong Shi's gaze. Ice began filling the room and the temperature dropped. Suddenly, fear was in Bucky's gaze as it reminded him of his time with Hydra. Steve also seemed to be in apprehension, for he chided with a tense and wary tone, "Bucky, that's no way to treat a guest and a visitor." There was a caution in his tone that only Bucky could pick up because he knew Steve so well. Steve wasn't just worried for his and Bucky's safety, he was worried that the consequences if Ying Kong Shi did something drastic could lead to trouble for all of them with the government and even organizations like Hydra. The last thing they needed was for any government or organization to know that someone like Ying Kong Shi was around. Steve was trying to hide him.

Bucky gulped down his fear. "Fine." He motioned for Ying Kong Shi to follow him, and he seemed to mellow down. The ice went away as he followed Bucky. "I'll take the cosplayer to his room." Bucky yelped as his but suddenly froze. Looking back, he saw anger in Ying Kong Shi's gaze.

"At least try to get along!" Steve begged, his pleading eyes looking at Bucky.

"Fine!" Bucky snapped. "Tell him to unfreeze my butt!"

"Bucky!" Steve pleaded again.

Bucky sighed and waddled out because of his frozen rear end, showing Ying Kong Shi to his room.

Grumbling as he stumbled along, he glanced back and noticed how graceful Ying Kong Shi was when he walked. It seemed unnatural, inhuman. "Say," Bucky suddenly commented with as much rudeness as he could manage, testing the guy. "Are those real elf ears or- AH!" Bucky dodged as ice was thrown in his direction and the window at the end of the hall shattered. "Great," Bucky hit his head.

"Bucky!" Steve shouted from downstairs. "Don't break things!"

"Why are you blaming me?" Bucky shouted back. "Don't jump to conclusions! He did it!"

"And I heard what you said! I know you provoked him!"

Bucky snorted. "Seems that Steve has a new favorite friend," Bucky grumbled, Ying Kong Shi grinning. "Bucky!" he heard Steve get after him. Bucky groaned and continued down the hallway. He stopped at the first available room as possible. "Here, ha, ha, you're new room. Go enjoy it." With that sarcasm stated, he pushed Ying Kong Shi inside and closed the door, Ying Kong Shi glaring at him the whole time. Then he waddled back downstairs.

It looked as if he was putting out a massive effort as he trudged towards the table. Finally sitting down with a sigh, Bucky put his head on the table. Steve shuffled over and put a glass of orange juice in front of him. "Thanks," Bucky offered.

"No problem," Steve responded, moving to sit on the seat next to him. As Bucky glanced up, he saw that Steve had his own cup of orange juice and that his hand was shaking slightly. That was when Bucky started becoming concerned.

"Bucky," Steve began carefully, aware that he had his friend's attention. "You shouldn't go trying to provoke people like that." And Bucky knew immediately because of his tone, that there was something being left unspoken, a warning that Steve didn't want to say aloud lest someone in the spare bedroom should hear.

Bucky began considering. He thought on everything he had seen today. "I don't think he's a cosplayer, Steve. Whatever he is, he's the real deal."

"My sentiments exactly," Steve confirmed. That was when Bucky realized that they had no idea what they were up against. Better to have a friend than an enemy, as the saying goes.

"What do you think he is?" Bucky whispered, and Steve sent a warning glare at him. "Yeah, I know he can probably hear us," Bucky rolled his eyes. "And I don't care. He's smart. I know that he's picked up a thing or two. The likely hood of us keeping anything from him isn't there. It's zero percent chance."

Steve sighed. "And that's what I'm afraid of." He put his glass of orange juice down. "Someone doesn't just come out of thin air, Bucky."

"I know what I saw!" Bucky glared, his face going red.

"I know," Steve responded, hand up, trying to pacify Bucky. "But even you have to admit that we don't have the full story. And we could have Ying Kong Shi's account of what happened and still not have the full story. No, there's something more at play. And I have to only hope that it is coincidence that brought him here. But so far in life, as far as I've learned, there is no coincidence. So that begs to question, if he didn't send himself here, who sent him here, and why?"

Bucky contemplated this for a minute. "Don't know," he finally admitted, sipping his orange juice.

Steve did the same. "And that's a problem. I'm used to being a pawn in things, Bucky. I'd hate to be drawn into someone else's scheme once more."

Bucky sighed. "No rest for the weary." And with that, he drained the remainder of his glass in several large gulps. As orange juice was on his lips, he decided to go get a napkin.

Steve waited until Bucky was done before continuing. "Bucky, we need to be careful. And I know that you don't like this, but we need to protect and shield that man until we find out exactly what's going on. We don't know what we're up against, and until we do we need to approach this with caution. And, as Ying Kong Shi could be the key to all of this, we need to keep him safe. And, most importantly, we need to keep him on our side."

Bucky grimaced. "'Kay."

"Which means," Steve ground out, a sincere and serious expression on his gaze as Bucky looked at him, suddenly uncomfortable, with a shiver, "You need to be nice to him. You need to try to get along. You can't do anything that could potentially drive him away, especially into our enemy's hands."

Bucky shivered as he knew that it was Hydra Steve was talking about. "'Kay," he whispered, suddenly feeling smaller.

Steve stared at him for a moment, making sure that he was serious. "That includes not making an enemy out of him. Just because we're not trying to drive him into the enemy's hands doesn't mean we want to drive him out and make _**him**_ our enemy. I can already see that he's a powerful man, and I get the feeling we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg of what powers he possesses or what he's capable of, including clever and wit."

"I get it, Steve," Bucky murmured. He looked out the window out of the dining room. "Be nice to the Ice Man."

"Bucky," Steve cautioned again.

Bucky chuckled. "I never said that I was going to start right away.

"Just become friends," Steve encouraged.

Bucky groaned.


End file.
